This September, Jordan and I made a somewhat last minute decision to hop on a plane and head out for a road trip around the UK. We opted for a 2-week stint exploring Scotland and England, which really meant 2400 miles driving through Scotland and England. And to be honest, we could have easily spent 2 weeks in each place!

We landed in Edinburgh, Scotland and took a couple hours to settle in, relax and grab food. It’s a huge touristy city, so we decided to only stay the day and head out the next day for the countryside.

We did, however, make it up to a huge hill where several monuments overlooked the entire city and countryside. It was gorgeous.

We just got engaged before the trip, so I had to snap a photo of the monuments … with my ring

Fun Fact: Scotland’s national animal is a Unicorn. Yes, you read that right. A Unicorn. England’s is a lion and the UK seal has both animals on it. See the photo below for the shot in front of The Queen’s Scotland residence, Holyrood Palace.

Edinburgh’s Holyrood Palace gates

We picked up our rental car – apparently the LAST automative rental in all of Scotland- and made our way out to the country. 16 hours of flying, layovers and connections later, and we’re off!

Jordan, exhausted, but doing an amazing job at driving on the opposite side of the road, AND the car.

We drove and drove, and even managed to find the house where my great grandmother was born. Then we continued driving and stopped at nearly every castle along the way. This is Dunnottar Castle, one of my favorites. Absolutely stunning cliffside with a short hike down, then back up to the castle!

I think one of our favorite parts of Scotland was the West side. We drove through to Loch Ness and the Great Glen, which was even more picturesque than I could have imagined. It was everything we expected Scotland to be. Whereas the East side was more city-scapes and tourists.

We made our way further West and ended up staying near Loch Ness. That whole area is just so beautiful! The photo below is of Urqhuart Castle on Loch Ness.

We even made a friend in the Great Glen. He/She was so soft and VERY friendly. We pet him/her and even touched the horns.

While touring the Western region, we even managed to get stuck on a 1 lane, 2 way street behind a herd of cows… and sheep! We inched our way along for about 20 minutes before the roads miraculously cleared.

One of the reasons Jordan wanted to visit Scotland was, of course, to go Whisky tasting, so, we made our way to Islay for some of the more pete-y varieties!

So that you aren’t scrolling for two days, through all 1200 photos, I’ll move us on to our England portion of the trip.

We started by driving down the East side of England, down through the middle and to the Sherwood Forest. Below is the Major Oak, a supposed meetingplace for Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

We rushed off to Downton Abbey – or Highclere Castle, to make sure we’d make the last tour time before they closed the property for filming the latest season of PBS/BBC’s Downton Abbey.

So exciting!!!

Then we drove to Stonehenge!

We headed toward Bristol after this and found the castle where we’d be staying. It was absolutely amazing, and was rumored to have been the castle that HenryVIII and Anne Boleyn frequently visited.

This was our breakfast the next day.

It was a good start to the day, and we decided to head in to Bath, where we could visit the ancient roman ruins of a spectacularly built two story roman bathhouse on natural hot springs. What you can’t see from this picture are the multiple steam rooms and jacuzzi’s. Really quite amazing!

After 10 days on the road and visiting extended family in Cornwall, we were exhausted and ready to be back in our own beds, we’re off to drop off the car in Heathrow before heading in to London!

In total we visited about 10 castles, 25 cities, 11 hotels and 1 Island. It was such an awesome experience! I’d highly recommend visiting Scotland, and plan on spending 2 weeks there! There’s so much to do and see there!

It’s a rarity that I walk into a wine bar and instantly feel welcomed like I did at Saarloos & Sons while venturing out to Los Olivos – Not far from Solvang. Keith Saarloos was both welcoming, witty, comedic and unabashedly sarcastic in every sense of the word.

Let’s start from the beginning:

I opened the door and found a room full of mirror-framed walls, delicate grey interior walls, family photos lining the shelves, chartreuse stenciled vintage wallpaper…and a very entertaining set of wine-os.
After some deliberation over which wine tasting option we would start with, we decided to let Keith make the call. Not only did we try some really great wines, we were told the stories behind each. “Brielle,” “Son,” “Mother,” “Extended Family,” (one of my favorites) and 194VII “Man and Wife” (another one of my favorites) were the tasting options. The quality of the wine and the stories behind each really evoked a sense of emotionality and pride- not only for their amazing wines, but for their family establishment and the mission behind it.

After lingering, and enjoying a bit more wine, we headed out to lunch.

We ended up going home with an unmarked bottle of a seriously delicious Rose wine to take home and enjoy. Jordan and I drank the whole bottle in one night without even blinking… and we didn’t want it to end.

As the group of us headed back home later that day, we knew we’d have to make it back up to Saarloos and Sons for some more wine- and we will. Our next trip is planned for early November! I guarantee We’ll be taking home more than one bottle this time!

The Location:

The Tasting

The Keith

Keith Saarloos

The Favorite

I really like that it shows you the year that the wine will be at its best!

We desperately needed a long weekend, wanted a romantic getaway, but didn’t have a lot of time to mess with the process of flights, hotels and what to do when we get to where we’re going. So, after short deliberations, we decided on cruising down to the Baja Sur California region of Mexico.

Carnival Cruise Ship

Like any good trip to Mexico, there was Tequila, Tacos, Tamales and Touring to be done. All three of which left us exhausted and in total enjoyment of the pool and lounges on-board.

Like I said…

Tequila

Tequila and Lime

Tacos

Real Mexican Tacos

…And TAMALES!

Side of the road tamales

…And Tigers (I totally fell in love. “Let’s just take her home, Jordan…”)

Baby Tiger Mexico

Might be the next christmas card from Jordan and Mia (and Lola)

Tiger Family Portrait

and Touring…

Windy on the ship- on land it was beautiful (and HOT!)

Mia and Jordan Ensenada

a local winery….

Mexican Winery

When all was said and done, Mexico was drug-crime free, fun and quite inexpensive for the whole thing. We even met a fun German couple whom we plan to visit! Generally, the cruise experience was awesome; enough time to relax on the water and enough time in Ensenada. Next stop?

Tell us your favorite Mexico destination and we may make that our next stop!

When it comes to Macaroni and Cheese, I, Mia, dub myself somewhat of a fanatical connoisseur of sorts. I’ve scoured the webosphere in search of the best places in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York…and just about anywhere else I visit for that matter. If we go out to eat, I find a place with Mac on the menu. If we end up eating somewhere that, by chance, offers Mac n Cheese, it’s always a struggle to order something else.

That said, here’s a list of a few of our favorite Mac n Cheeses (in no particular order):

Chez Mia & Jordan Los Angeles, CA- Ok, so we’re not an establishment in any way, but I can honestly say that our recipe has by far been my favorite. To be fair, our cheeses run us $75 so it was, understandably so, the best I’d had.

And because we want to share this gloriousness with you:

Ingredients (Serves 2-3):

1 (8-oz.) package macaroni (I like to mix it up and try unique shapes from World Market)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

1 cup of Panko and regular bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash of Nutmeg

Dash of Paprika

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

8-oz of three cheeses. We used an aged Gouda, Comté and Goat cheese (note: you do NOT need to spend $70 on cheese, just get good quality cheese)

Prep:

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Strain and keep warm.

Preheat oven to 400°

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in salt and black pepper, 2/3 of the cheese, and cooked pasta into a large pan.

Spoon pasta mixture into a lightly greased 2-qt. baking dish; top with remaining 1/3 of the cheese. Sprinkle nutmeg on top of cheese. Evenly place Panko and bread crumbs on top. Lightly sprinkle Paprika on top (gives it a great color and dimension when cooked!)

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes OR until bubbly. If it’s bubbling, definitely remove it from the oven!